Obama’s multilateral realism was a continuity of Bush-era imperial strategy

Evidence

Obama claimed that his policy was a shift to the realist tradition of great power geopolitics. As he put it, “The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, and in some ways of Ronald Reagan.” Yet, as we saw above, during Bush’s second term the neoconservatives were also gravitating toward this position because of the failure of their approach in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soon after taking office, Obama deployed 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, expanded the war into Pakistan (through the “Af-Pak” strategy), tried to pressure Iraq into granting an extension of the US occupation (which failed), carried out drone attacks and “black ops” in Yemen and Somalia, and participated in the NATO war on a former ally in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. This should not come as a surprise, since his inaugural staff included Bush personnel like defense secretary Bob Gates and General Petraeus, as well as Democratic Party hawks like Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden. The Obama administration’s strategy consisted of a return to multilateralism, using multilateral institutions to incorporate and subordinate international and regional rivals. … Yet, despite this multilateral strategy, the Obama administration still resorted to unilateral actions when needed—the assassination of Osama bin Laden, for example—as well as to bilateral agreements. Obama’s vision was to secure, through this strategy of engagement, a world order under US management and in its interests. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 501

Categorization

• XREF: Sharpens the vault’s existing claim that Islamophobia shifts between administrations as imperial tactics evolve — corroborates Aziz/Razack on how empire persists across Democratic and Republican presidencies. — connects to: The Bush-to-Obama transition was rhetorical, not structural — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 527; Obama’s realist framing masked a continuation of Bush-era imperial warfare — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 501; Obama used multilateralism as a means of subordinating rivals under US-led order — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 501 (+7 more)
• ADDENDUM: Multilateralism as a mode of empire parallels the ‘on Sacrifice’ piece’s account of how civilizational framings legitimize stratifying violence under changing political guises.

Broader Connections

• Obama’s liberal-rhetoric foreign policy continued Bush-era imperial military operations. #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 513
• Bush to Obama was a rhetorical shift masking unchanged imperial fundamentals. #corroborates (0.93)
• Obama continued and expanded Bush’s imperial wars despite softer rhetoric #corroborates (0.92) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 579
• Obama’s realist framing masked continued military expansion across many fronts #corroborates (0.90)
• Obama-era policy reports rejected clash-of-civilizations thinking for liberal imperialism #expands (0.75)
• Both Bush and Obama administrations endorsed overseas basing as stabilizing #expands (0.72)